What's Playing

Posted: Thursday, June 11, 2009

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OPENING SOON

Brothers Bloom - What you take away from this snazzy-looking fantasy about fraternal drifters embarking on a final con are its travel brochure-pretty pictures of colorful locales including Prague, St. Petersburg and Montenegro. Beyond that your response to the movie, which takes too conspicuous a delight in its own cleverness, is likely to be a shrug and a "so what?" (Stephen Holden, The New York Times) 109 min. PG-13. Beechwood: 1:15, 4:05, 7:10 and 9:45 p.m. daily.

Chinatown - JJ "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a private detective who seems to specialize in matrimonial cases. He is hired by Evelyn Mulwray when she suspects her husband Hollis (Darrell Zwerling) builder of the city's water supply system, of having an affair. Gittes does what he does best and photographs Hollis with a young girl but in the ensuing scandal, it seems he was hired by an impersonator and not the real Mrs. Mulwray. To make matters worse, the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) stops by with her lawyer to discuss the damaging gossip running through local newspaper headlines. When Mr. Mulwray is found dead, Jake is plunged into a complex web of deceit involving murder, incest and municipal corruption all related to the city's water supply. (imdb) 131 min. Cine: 8:30 p.m. daily, with additional shows at 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Sugar - "Sugar," which follows a young pitcher from a training camp in the Dominican Republic to a minor-league club in Iowa (and beyond), is infused with a deep affection for baseball, the rhythms of which are nimbly captured by a narrative pace and editing style that quicken and relax as necessary. (A. O. Scott, The New York Times) 120 min. R. Cine: 7 and 9:30 p.m. daily, with additional shows at 4:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday.

Taking of Pelham 123 - Denzel Washington (as a New York City subway dispatcher) and John Travolta (as a baddie holding a train's worth of passengers hostage) take over for Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw in this remake of the 1974 classic. Directed by Tony Scott, who unloads all his trademark camera pyrotechnics on what is essentially a feature-length conversation between two men via short-wave radio, peppered by bits of action. (Rene Rodriguez, McClatchy Newspapers) 106 min. R. Beechwood: 1:20, 4:10, 7 and 9:35 p.m. daily; Carmike: 1:45, 4:30, 7:15 and 9:40 p.m. daily, with an additional show at 12:05 a.m. Saturday.

Drag Me to Hell - Director Sam Raimi returns to his horror roots with this story of a bank loan officer (Alison Lohman) who becomes the recipient of a curse when she has to evict an elderly woman from her home. 99 min. PG-13. Beechwood: 3:50 and 10 p.m. daily; Carmike: Noon, 2:30, 5, 7:40 and 10:05 p.m. daily.

Goodbye Solo - Director Ramin Bahrani's third feature is moving and mysterious, and you may find yourself pondering its implications for a long time after the film's simple and haunting final images have faded. It all begins matter-of-factly enough with a conversation between a taxi driver and his passenger, who proposes an unusual business arrangement. The driver, Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane) is a Senegalese man living in Winston-Salem, N.C., working and charming his way toward a share of the American dream. His demeanor is effortlessly warm and disarmingly friendly. The man in the back seat is William (Red West), a white Southerner at least 30 years older than Solo, who wants to arrange a trip to a place called Blowing Rock. "What are you going to do, jump off?" Solo asks jokingly. William's silent response unnerves him, even as it inaugurates the movie's subtle and lucid exploration of a human connection that seems at once startlingly new - at least as a subject for a movie - and bracingly real. "Goodbye Solo" does note the particulars of Solo's situation, but he is no more a case study than the grumpy, taciturn William, about whom we learn almost nothing. While the temperamental differences between them could not be clearer, the film is grounded in their adamant, fine-grained individuality. It's not interested in what they are like, but rather in who they are. What each one takes from the other is not spelled out and does not need to be. Because grace is what defines Bahrani's filmmaking. I can't think of anything else to call the quality of exquisite attention, wry humor and wide-awake intelligence that informs every frame of this almost perfect film. (A. O. Scott, The New York Times) 91 min. R. Cine: 6:15 p.m. daily, with additional shows at 4:15 p.m. Friday-Sunday.

Land of the Lost - Will Ferrell, Anna Friel and Danny McBride co-star in this big-screen reimagining of the 1970s TV series about a family that travels back in time to the dinosaur era. Because there are just too many damn original ideas floating around Hollywood. (Rene Rodriguez, McClatchy Newspapers) 93 min. PG-13. Beechwood: 12:15, 2:35, 4:55, 7:20 and 9:55 p.m. daily; Carmike: 12:30, 2:55, 5:20, 7:45 and 10:10 p.m. daily.